Materials which are used for constructing decks have increasingly involved employing denser materials, such as dense woods. The increased denseness can adversely impact the effectiveness of conventional deck screws. Many deck screws which were adapted to perform with composite materials of lower densities are significantly less effective when used to fasten denser wood materials. The difficulties of driving fasteners into very dense materials have become a significant obstacle in deck construction. It would thus be useful to have a decking screw that performs reliably with very dense decking materials.